MLB BRIEFS: Bucs won't face Mets' Harvey

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — New York Mets right-hander Matt Harvey will skip his scheduled start Saturday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Manager Terry Collins made the announcement before the Mets’ series finale Wednesday with the San Francisco Giants. He said a minor blister has recently bothered the rookie.

Collins said Harvey, who is 7-2 with a 2.35 ERA, will throw limited innings this season, but the number hasn’t been determined.

Right-hander Carlos Torres (0-1, 0.51 ERA) will replace him.

Benson’s wife tossed in jail

SMYRNA, Ga. (AP) — Police in Georgia said the wife of former major league pitcher Kris Benson is in jail without bond after her husband accused her of threatening him with a gun.

Smyrna police said Anna Benson, 37, was arrested Sunday on charges of aggravated assault with a weapon, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and trespassing.

Investigators said Kris Benson told police that his wife, who was featured on VH1’s “Baseball Wives,” was

wearing a bullet-proof vest and threatened him with a gun while she demanded $30,000.

Police said that when she was asked why she was wearing the vest, she told officers she was a model and was testing the vest for a company.

Benson played from 1999 to 2010 for Pittsburgh, Baltimore, the New York Mets, Texas and Arizona.

Giants pitcher facing charge

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A San Francisco Giants pitcher has been charged with lewdness after police said he touched a woman’s breast at a Las Vegas hospital earlier this year.

Chad Gaudin, 30, was arrested Jan. 27, although the case didn’t attract attention at the time.

Police said Gaudin was drunk when he approached a 23-year-old woman on a gurney at Desert Springs Hospital, told her she was gorgeous and touched her face and breast. A paramedic told Gaudin to leave the woman alone, but he refused, and security staff held him down until police arrived.

Gaudin has pitched as a starter and in relief. He’s 2-1 this year with a 2.44 ERA.

Rocker still making noise

CLEVELAND (AP) — John Rocker is still making noise, a decade after the disgraced pitcher last played in the big leagues.

Rocker told a Cleveland radio station this week that performance-enhancing drugs made major league baseball “more entertaining” during the Steroids Era.

Rocker told WKRK-FM: “Honestly, and this may go against what some people think from an ethical standpoint, I think it was the better game.”

“At the end of the day when people are paying their $80, $120, whatever it may be, to buy their ticket and come watch that game, it’s almost like the circus is in town,” he said. “They wanna see some clown throw a fastball 101 mph and some other guy hit it 500 feet. That’s entertainment.”

Rocker, 38, was suspended in 2000 after making disparaging remarks. He later admitted he used steroids. He now works on behalf of homeless veterans.

CHURCHILL (AP) — The Pennsylvania Game Commission was being asked to find and possibly relocate a nest after police say hawks attacked an adult and two children in a Pittsburgh suburb.Churchill police Officer Jeff Henzier said a woman suffered head cuts when one hawk swooped down on her Sunday in this suburb just east of the city. That woman, Elaine McDonough, said she thought she had been h